and you’d think that we were in a war zone and that all of this
was done for religious purposes and people’s lives were at stake
and maybe they were and I just don’t know it. I don’t know. I
know what it’s like to have a cause but I never tried to
close people out to it, I tried to include them, to open them
up to it, but I remember deciding once to walk to a woman’s parade
called “take back the night”, so that people knew that women
should feel safe walking alone in the streets at night without
worrying about being mugged or raped or killed because they were
female. Well anyway, I was walking to the parade to take
photographs because I’m a photographer, and a group of women
were walking in a group to the parade, so I walked down the street
and started walking with them, and they were chanting and singing
and I thought, wow, this is unity, people together for a cause.
and one of the women told me while we were walking that someone
women there didn’t like me walking with them because I was white
and they were African American. and I looked around and noticed
that there wasn’t a racial mix, and I said, well, we’re all going to the same
place, and the woman replied, well, some people don’t like you
walking with us anyway. so I turned my head and let them walk
and I crossed the street and took another block and got there before them.
and this is how we define how we should be separated, I suppose,
though I still don’t understand it. and during that parade I heard
about a trial case where a black man was convicted of a police brutality
crime, and the black community was outraged, saying that
the white man was holding them down, and maybe in a way they are right
and I just don’t understand it. a large group of people started their own
rally that night which seemed to take center stage from women’s rights,
i mean, they’re just women, what are they going to do, bitch a little louder,
or complain a little more, but then again, maybe it is just a matter
of deciding who has the loudest voice, or who has the most recent problem
to complain about, I don’t know. we went out that night, and I heard
the next day that in light of the trial 23 fires were started
on school property, and most of them were of books in libraries
and I thought, this isn’t nonresistant violence, this is out and out violent
and what they’re destroying are opportunities for learning and not ideas.
“yeah, but do these books hold what the white man wants you to learn?
if this how he alters our perceptions?” i don’t know, but this doesn’t
solve anything and this isn’t the answer... then I heard about one of my
best friends, a white man, hit once by a black man in the street
while they were out that night, and the doctor said that they had to have
a roll of quarters in their hand or brass knuckles because this was a clean break
of their jaw and for six weeks his jaw was wired shut and he had to throw pizza
or meat loaf in the blender so he could eat something instead of ice cream
while he tried to recover. and I thought, is this all getting anything done?
are we coming any closer to racial harmony? what are we learning from this?
Scars Publications and Design
in conjunction with Penny Dreadful Press
first edition
copyright @ 2004 Scars Publications and Design
827 Brian Court, Gurnee IL 60031-3155 USA
Editor@scars.tv
http://scars.tv
and assistance from Freedom & Strength Foundation, Troy Press, Hawthorne Press & Dried Roses Press
printed in the United States of America
writings @ 1979-2004 Janet Kuypers
book design @ 1998-2004 Scars Publications and DesignThis book, as a whole, is fiction, and no correlation should be made between events in the book and events in real life. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.Information about past books is available upon request through Scars Publications and Design. Materials from the literary magazines “Children, Churches and Daddies” and “Down in the Dirt” are available on line at http://scars.tv, as are .mp3 files, .ra files, .aif files, .au files, .wav files .mov and mpeg files of Kuypers, both reading her work and singing with three sets of musicians.Oeuvre is published through Scars Publications and Design, whose publisher is a member/minister through the Universal Life Church. Scars Publications and Design, the logo and associated graphics @ 1979 - 2004. All rights reserved. Kuypers and Scars Publications and Design welcome your comments, tips, compliments or complaints. Direct all comments and suggestions to the e-mail addresses listed above.The definition of oeuvre (the works of a writer, painter, or the like, taken as a whole) is from the Websters Unabridged 2001 Dictionary.